Japanese stocks are higher in early trade Monday following modest gains on Wall Street in Friday's session.

Tech-related issues are higher, following a report that Sharp, the world's biggest maker of liquid crystal displays (LCDs), will spend more than $800 million to boost production capacity next year.

Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 average is up 0.53 percent at 10,472.22, while the broader Topix is 0.45 percent ahead to 1,023.05, extending the previous session's 0.55 percent gain.

Markets in Australia and New Zealand are also higher in early trade, but South Korea's Kospi is down about 0.2 percent.

That follows release of government data Monday showing South Korea's industrial output fell slightly in November after three months of gains.

The dollar is trading slightly weaker at 107.27 yen in Asia Monday. The Australian dollar is continuing to trade near six-year highs and is quoted at 74.20 U.S. cents.

In a shortened trading session Friday, Wall Street finished slightly higher, with the Dow putting on 0.19 percent to 10,324.67 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rising 0.2 percent to 1973.14. (Full story)

In Tokyo, there are solid gains for consumer electronics makers such as Sony, Canon and Toshiba.

Sharp is 1.64 percent higher to 1674 yen after the Nihon Keizai newspaper said it will invest about 90 billion yen ($839.1 million) in early 2004 to triple the planned production capacity of large LCD panels at its Kameyama plant in western Japan.

The increased spending will bring Sharp's total investment in the facility to around 200 billion yen and will allow the site to produce the equivalent of 360,000 30-inch LCD televisions a month, the paper said.

Automakers Honda and Nissan are up, but Toyota is down about half a percent. The market's biggest stock, mobile phone company NTT DocoMo, is steady at 234,000 yen.

Misawa Homes is down 6.34 percent at 133 yen after the home builder said Friday it will fall deep into the red in the year to March after taking a 149 billion yen ($1.39 billion) special charge, mainly on its real estate holdings.

In Seoul, the Kospi is down 0.24 percent to 786.96. Samsung Electronics is down slightly, but big exporter Hyundai Motor is up half a percent to 47.850 won.

LG Card and KEB Credit are both down sharply on worries about the credit card industry.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 is up 0.32 percent to 3276.0. Big resources company BHP Billiton is ahead 1 percent to A$12.19, and there are gains for Telstra, Qantas and leading bank NAB.

But market heavyweight News Corp is down 0.34 percent to A$11.84.

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